Complicated times

Difficult to grasp the background rumors, in the folds of a summer anyway over the top, with surprises of all kinds around the corner. Starting with ideas that are somewhat outdated, but which then reappear in the open scene.
Maybe not if he speaks willingly, because he would like to remove this worry, taking advantage of the summer to breathe another air. But you can't hide behind a finger.

In short, Covid, with its pressing variants, has not abandoned us, nor have we been able to fully harness it. Indeed he is re-emerging in a big way, despite the times of the sun (which do not scare the virus, as perhaps we had deluded ourselves). And here we are again in a situation that we would like not to worry about, but which in fact returns to affect us not a little.
This ever-aggressive reappearance is heavily added to other troubles, to what is happening to our pockets, with the macroscopic increases in prices, bills and costs, in a spiral of inflation that puts the chills (even more than the scorching heat).
We find it hard to see the light beyond these tunnels that we have to cross.

Without forgetting that there is a war on the doorstep of Europe, with its terrible trail of victims, destruction, massacres and violence. And then - as if that wasn't enough already - here are the salty bills that come to us from climate change, drought, storms of unprecedented virulence. There is no need to be reassured, at all. An autumn-winter is also looming on the horizon in which we may not be able to fully warm up. We experience directly, in our daily affairs, all this intertwining of worries that makes us feel precarious and vulnerable. Politics also contributes, stranded in unthinkable and unexpected drifts, disconnected from the real country, which did not need incomprehensible crises, but shared determination in facing the hardships of many.

Truly complicated times, which stimulate appeals to be responsible on all these fronts. Recovering attitudes (or virtues, if we want to use an even more demanding term) that are indispensable: prudence that makes people adopt adequate anti-contagion measures to protect themselves and protect themselves from the virus; the awareness of the price increases to be endured by giving oneself a hand (because too many can't take it anymore); solidarity with the tragedy of Ukraine by not "getting used to" the war; sobriety in the daily management of the well-water; attention to the environment to do its part in stemming climate change.
There is no need to sit idle, just waiting for the holidays (for those who can take them).

Corrado Avagnina
NP August / September 2022